My Sweet Babies

I am being totally lazy today...we went to the beach this past week with Alle (The Boys and Me), Micah (Stand By Me), and Mandy (The Harper's Haven) plus all of our kids...that's 4 adults and 7 kids, if you're keeping count. It was actually pretty uneventful, which is impressive considering the sheer volume of kids all under age 4! I took a ton of pictures, but out of laziness, I am only posting my 2 faves. We took all the kids down to the beach one day late afternoon to take pictures. All 4 of the mom's had out our big cameras with bigger lenses. We looked like the paparazzi (mom-arazzi)! Anyway, these were too darn cute not to share!

My Best Friend

I never, in a million years, would have thought that over 12 years ago on a drunken senior cruise would be the beginning of the rest of my life. I could not have imagined that this guy sitting next to me at the "Captain's Dinner" would turn out to be the love of my life, father of my children, and my best friend. Now, I could not imagine my life any other way.

This is, hands down, my most favorite picture from the whole wedding

The boys!

The whole fam-damily

It makes me so sad that two of the people in this picture are no longer with us. I know they are watching over us. We love you and miss you!

The girls! Love you all!

"Wonderful Tonight"

I think this picture says it all. Will, I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love you. Annah and Liam think you are the greatest Daddy in the whole world. You love me unconditionally (even when I don't always deserve it). You complete me :)

August 23, 2003

A Little Comparison

So, I know everyone says you shouldn't compare your kids, but sometimes I just can't help it. Here is a picture of Annah and Liam both at 15 months. Holy cow, they have the same smile (all Will), but I'm not sure about the rest...what do you think?

Either way, (and I know I might be just a bit biased) I think they are the two cutest kids in the whole wide world!

Liam's 15 Month Stats

Good grief! Where does the time go?! I cannot believe my baby is 15 months already!

Liam is walking and seems to learn new words every day. His favorite things right now are flipping the light switches (every time we pass one--which is quite often, as you can imagine--he squeals "lights! lights!), buttons (any and all buttons--unfortunately this includes turning the stove off while I'm cooking), and anything with a steering wheel! All boy!

We had his 15 month check up yesterday and my boy is growing like a weed! He is 33" tall (Annah was 33" at 3 years, just for some perspective), putting him in the 95%ile. He is 26.1 lbs (for the record, Annah is 27 lbs at 4 years!), putting him in the 50th%ile. I can't remember the head circumference, but whatever it was, he is in the 60th%ile. Bottom line, he is healthy as a horse! Can't ask for much more than that!

Makes Me Laugh

If I can say nothing else about Annah, she can make me laugh anytime, anywhere! Here are a couple of her laugh-out-loud moments from the last week or so...

The other day we were leaving the pet store. There was a convertible in the parking lot and Annah said, "Oh my gosh, Mommy, that car is missing it's lid!"

Yesterday we were on our way to the lake house. We had been in the car for the better part of an hour and I told Annah that we were in the middle of nowhere. She thought for a minute and said, "Yes, Mommy, that is true. But, don't you think that means the beach house is in the middle of yes-where?" I love how literal she is!

Bonjour Butterfly

Anyone who has ever read this blog knows that we have a rather large fascination with Fancy Nancy in our house. There is a Fancy Nancy book called, Bonjour Butterfly, where among other things, Fancy Nancy visits a butterfly garden. EdVenture has it's very own butterfly garden exhibit here until September (or October, I'm not really sure) and Annah was very excited to go see the butterflies. She was hoping for an azure butterfly (like in the book)...none of those, but lots and lots of butterflies, none the less. We met up with Laura, Delainey and Jacqueline at EdVenture and had a great time!

There were only 2 rules in the butterfly exhibit:

1) Don't step on the butterflies and 2) don't touch their wings

Yet, with only two rules, we still managed to break half of them. Here's Liam moments before the breaking of rule #1. It makes me cringe just looking at the picture...

...but he thought it was hysterical

The upshot to Liam's mistake was that said injured butterfly sat on my finger for all the kids to get a great look at up close

Delainey and Annah wanted a picture of this one

This is so sweet (injured butterfly again)

Annah was really afraid of a butterfly landing on her...what kind of little girl is afraid of a butterfly?!

Give this kid anything with a steering wheel and he is as happy as a pig in poop

I think (and I know this is a shock) that I might take too many pictures because in this picture Liam saw me with the camera and was saying "cheese!"

Annah looked VERY comfortable on the tractor...was this kid raised in a barn?

Actually, yes, she was!

Firefighter Annah

There were several school groups at EdVenture. By that I mean several groups of kids with little adult supervision and even fewer manners. Liam was waiting to drive the car and they kept jumping in front of him in line. I was going back and forth in my head between setting the good example and waiting patiently OR yelling at the little monsters to give my baby a turn so we could go home already...eventually Liam worked out his own tactic...

Tears...

...worked like a charm!

GOT MILK?!

OK, so really it's yogurt, but I still think the Got Milk people should use this face in their next ad campaign!

Happy Birthday G-Money!

Last week was Gardner's (aka G-Money) 4th birthday. The party was at Blackbeard's Cove in Charleston. It was a really neat place (kind of like Frankie's Fun Park)...arcade, playground, putt putt...you get the idea! Liam was in heaven in the arcade. The boy loves anything with a steering wheel and balls, so the racing video games were a huge hit. Annah had a great time playing putt putt with Daddy (when Liam wasn't stealing her golf ball, anyway). Annah and Gardner are only 8 weeks apart, so Gardner's birthday is always a reminder to me that my baby girl is almost another year older too. I am constantly baffled at how fast time flies!

This kid is excited!

Annah and Daddy take a drive

Liam's version of ski ball (is that what it's called?) was to walk up the ramp and drop the ball into the hole he wanted. I probably should have stopped him, but I don't think he did any real harm

Annah putting

Liam "putting" (again, more of picking the ball up and putting it in the hole)

Birthday Boy, G-Money!

Annah was so excited there was purple icing on a "boy cake"

Baby Brother, P-Funk